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Singapore's onshore stocks of residual fuels declined during the seven days up to Wednesday, January 3, according to data from International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.

Stockpiles of residues, a category which includes fuel oil and low-sulphur waxy residue and excludes bitumen, fell 2.464 million barrels, or 10 percent, to a two-week low of 22.728 million barrels.

The January 3 inventory figure was 22 percent higher than the same time last year.

The week-on-week stock decrease was recorded despite fuel oil net imports into Singapore rising to a 33-week high of 1.457 million tonnes, up 149 percent on the previous 7-day period.

According to the data, Venezuela accounted for 303,000 tonnes of net imports into Singapore, followed by Brazil at 156,000 tonnes, Iraq at 149,000 tonnes and Russia's 142,000 tonnes.

China received the largest amount of Singapore's net exports at 196,000 tonnes, followed by Hong Kong with 50,000 tonnes and Bangladesh with 25,000 tonnes.